Deborah’s work is inspired by Tasmania’s unique endangered flora.
Growing in the temperate rainforests, open moorlands and jagged mountain ranges, are some of the world’s strangest, oldest, largest and most wonderful plants, like Tasmania’s striking fagus (nothofagus gunnii).
Many of these plants grow only in Tasmania, or have their nearest relatives in South America and New Zealand.
New and exciting ecological discoveries happen constantly in this remote island landscape.
Using the time-honoured techniques of the world-travelling botanists of past centuries, plant specimens are preserved in plant presses and held in Deborah’s private herbarium collection.
Deborah’s work takes her to botanical gardens, research herbaria and wild places. All wild material collection is conducted with minimal impact and the appropriate permissions.
These unique plant specimens are individually arranged, etched, inked, pressed, printed, scanned and transformed through the alchemical process of creative design.
Through this careful arrangement and quiet whisperings, the plants are deliberately placed to magnify their hidden characters.
Ink, glass, razor blades, pencils, presses, acids, papers, fabrics and other tools are used to create the designs.
Deborah’s artwork is produced by commission and for licensing for specific clients. It is also being transformed into elegant and physical objects.
In addition to decades of experience in inking and pressing onto high-quality papers, she is now creating exquisitely detailed clothing and designs, employing fine silks and linens.
Bespoke and limited-edition designs, and commissions, are available upon request and subject to calendar availability.
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A fabric designer, ecological activist, plant advocate and professional printmaker from Hobart, Tasmania.
Deborah WACE acknowledges the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of the nation and the traditional custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work
